cliffnotes.

I have been camped out in Genesis and before that the Samuels. I am fascinated beyond words by the lineage of God’s people. I wrote out the family tree to better grasp it. And as I read over and over and over it, I could not shake what seemed to be a minor detail. Why the line of Judah?

Let me do some quick story telling to catch you up. In the beginning God created Adam and Eve. They messed up. Jump down a few generations and we have Noah. Noah was a pretty stand up guy, but everyone around him messed up… messed up so badly God flooded the earth and wiped them out. Then one day Noah got drunk and passed out in a tent naked. One of his sons found him that way and shared the findings with his brothers. A nation was cursed because of it. Noah’s oldest son went on to raise a pretty stand up guy, too. His name was Abram, later known as Abraham; from Abraham through his pride and joy, Isaac, God would enter into a covenant. Isaac has twin boys: Esau, the hairy one and Jacob.

This is good stuff. Jacob is the youngest, but he tricks his old and blind father into passing his blessing onto him. Jacob was shady. Jacob was my favorite. Jacob goes onto make babies, lots of babies… interestingly dysfunctional babies. Jacob was also a romantic. They don’t make many men like Jacob anymore. He saw and fell in love with Rachel (awwww…). Then he worked seven years for Rachel's father to have her hand in marriage. Well Rachel’s daddy tricks him and gives Rachel’s older sister Leah to him instead. But he only has eyes for Rachel, so this crazy man works ANOTHER SEVEN years for her… love it!

Rachel can’t make babies, but Leah is popping out boys like it’s her day job. So Rachel offers up her maidservant, Bilhah, who pops out a couple sons for Jacob. Leah sees this and says, well I’ll give him my maidservant, too. So her maidservant, Zilpah has a couple of boys. Then Leah decides she’s still got it so she has two more baby boys (and a girl Dinah who stirs up some drama later). Then finally 10 baby boys later his beloved Rachel finally has a son, Joseph. And later on has another one named Benjamin. Here are the 12 tribes of Israel…fascinating.

To dive a little deeper.. let’s start with Reuben, the first born to Jacob. He ends up sleeping with Bilhah, one of his brothers’ mothers.

Then we have Simeon and Levi, the big brothers of Dinah. This guy sees Dinah and decides he has to have her, so he sleeps with her. Then he goes to her father and brothers and asks for permission to marry her. The brothers are furious, so the devise this plan against him. They give him their blessing attached to a couple conditions.. not only does he have to get circumcised but his entire village must do the same. Then while the whole town is recovering from their “surgery”, Simeon and Levi go in and destroy everyone insight by sword.

The fourth born, Judah messes up too. This is, to date, one of my favorite Old Testament stories. Judah has three sons; Er, Onan and Shelah. Er marries a girl by the name of Tamar. Then because of Er wickedness God strikes him down. So Tamar is given to Onan in marriage, who is also struck down. So Judah promises his youngest son, Shelah to the twice now widow, Tamar. But Judah doesn’t follow through on this promise. So Tamar pretends to be a prostitute and sleeps with Judah. When Judah hears of his daughter-in-law’s pregnancy he orders her death (not knowing he’s the baby daddy)… SURPRIZE, you ARE the father. So Tamar goes onto have twins (Zerah and Perez). Perez actually sticks his arm out first, but Zerah beats him out. (Birth order was such a big deal back then they fought about it at the ripe age of ZERO..craziness)

Jump a couple sons down to Joseph. Joseph was his daddy’s favorite, because he was born to Rachel (daddy’s other favorite). The brothers hated Joseph so much that they plotted murder, but opted for the less messy, by selling him into slavery. Now even though Joseph was dealt a couple crappy cards (slavery and jailtime, just to name a few) he was a great guy; truly blessed and everything he touched seemed to work out for him. Apparently, he decoded dreams in his spare time, which landed him in control of Egypt. Now from this line, the boys of Jacob; to be more specific, the line of Judah (the fourth born).. came some pretty big names; Boaz, Obed, Jesse, DAVID, Solomon… right on down to Joseph the husband of Mary and father to (insert drumroll) JESUS.

In reading through the Samuels and 1 & 2 Kings, I picked up a few things. David was a man of God’s own heart. That’s huge. I constantly ask myself, what made David so special? He came from the dysfunctional line of Judah and his fake prostitute. He himself commented adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered to cover it up. Why David? Why the line of Judah?

I’m pulling this out of my memory bank, so it’s a lil fuzzy; but around the time of Solomon (David’s son) the kingdom starts to crumble and under his son Rehoboam the kingdom is divided into Israel and Judah. I’m not sure why, but God continued to bless the house of Judah. The Kings of Israel's rulings were quick, and shady.. they all turn from God. But the kingdom of Judah remains in the family. The kingdom of Israel jumps from person, to person.. never really carrying over more than two generations. Father comes into rule, dies, gives kingdom to son… shortly after the kingdom is taken from the son and so the cycle continues. So why the line of Judah? I was really struggling with this. I knew there had to be something there, but I couldn’t shake it. Why would God pick Judah? Joseph was a nice lad. Why was David so special? He was corrupt, too. Jesus was perfect in every way, why not give him a family tree worth bragging about?

Then a wise man (my boyfriend) gave me a verse that brought everything around full circle. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27

It all makes perfect sense. Ready for the conclusion to my longwinded epiphany? We wouldn’t know God’s glory if it weren’t for sin. We wouldn’t appreciate His grace, if it had come so easy to the “perfect”. Adam… sinner. Judah… sinner. David… sinner. Solomon… sinner. And so the story continues on down to the authors of the new testament. Disciples.. sinners. Paul… sinner. It makes God’s glory and the perfect life of Jesus Christ shine so bright, I can’t avoid the cheesy light bulb illumination on my face. Why was David so special? David realized the enormity of his inequities and praised God for all of His holiness and righteousness and glory. David desired God, pursued God, praised God despite his own hang-ups. His psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder.